author
Robert M. Rogers
1839–1904
A Union Army veteran turned regimental historian, he left behind a vivid firsthand account of the 125th Illinois Volunteer Infantry and its Civil War service. His writing preserves both the movement of campaigns and the everyday texture of soldiers' lives.
1 Audiobook
The 125th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry: Attention Batallion!
by Robert M. Rogers
About the author
Born in 1839 and later identified as Robert Maxwell Rogers, he settled in Vermilion County, Illinois, as a young man and served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He enlisted in the 125th Illinois Infantry, the regiment that would become the subject of his best-known book.
Rogers is remembered for The 125th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry: Attention Battalion!, published in 1882. In that volume, written as a former second sergeant of Company B, he gathered the regiment's story into a detailed narrative of service, battles, and comradeship, creating a valuable firsthand record for later readers.
He died in 1904. Though not widely known today outside Civil War history circles, his book remains an important witness to the experience of Illinois volunteers in the war and to the effort of veterans to record their own history while memories were still fresh.